


Chained

by orphan_account



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-03
Updated: 2016-04-03
Packaged: 2018-05-30 22:25:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6444424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>!!!DISCONTINUED!!! TRESPASSER DLC SPOILERS-- After the events of Dragon Age: Trespasser, Inquisitor Atisha Lavellan finds that he has no recollection of the past few months since the mark was removed and wakes up in an unfamiliar setting.  Consumed by confusion and fear, he finds that only the companionship of his lover, The Iron Bull, can help him cope with his losses.<br/>Warnings for trauma, amnesia, and smut in later chapters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chained

_You don't need blood magic or demons to change someone's mind. We're a lot more fragile than we'd like to believe._

* * *

 

Laid out on a soft cot made of some sort of hide, Inquisitor Atisha Lavellan’s fists clenched into the fur, just barely strong enough to rip out a few threads of hair.  He was weak; he felt like he hadn’t eaten in weeks.  His fingers quivered as he let go of the hide covering his cot, not even able to open his eyes.  Somehow, though, he could tell he wasn’t anywhere he was supposed to be.

There was the smell of dried elfroot and wood shavings, the sound of light footsteps and the occasional crackling from the stoking of a fire.  It was familiar, on the tip of his tongue.

No.  No, it couldn’t be.

 “Quiet, children, he’s waking.”

Lavellan’s heavy eyes slowly opened, and he found himself meeting the eyes of his former Keeper.

He shrieked, his instincts taking over, and he looked around for anything he could use as a weapon. Istimaethoriel sighed, and with the wave of her hand, Atisha’s arms were bound to the edges of the cot by some sort of magic.  Before the woman could get a word out, he could only shriek again, this time managing to put some comprehensible words together.  “What do you want from me? Let me go!”

“Be still, da’len.  You’ve had quite the journey.  You need rest—”

“What sort of joke is this?!” he demanded, struggling at his magical restraints.  “You know what I said when I left! I wasn’t coming back and you know it!  I refuse to be trapped here!”  Though he was still weak, the adrenaline pumping through him strengthened him for a moment, allowing him to think as drastically as he possibly could.  His lone hand pulsed with magic, and with one last pull, he phased directly through the magic binding his arms, immediately sending out a thundering pulse of magic that surrounded him in a protective barrier.  The Keeper was sent directly into the ground, and the young elves working in the campsite nearby gasped loudly, several running to help her up.

“Fenedhis!” the Keeper exclaimed, reaching up to rub her head, pushing away the young Dalish who attempted to help her as she stumbled up.  “Atisha, you must be calm! I have not trapped you here!”

“Like hell you haven’t! You bound me as soon as I showed signs of waking!”  He felt himself trembling but was determined to keep the barrier up as long as possible.  “I won’t go back to this life!  I _won’t_!”

“Boss, what the hell?!”

Atisha’s barrier faltered, and he blinked rapidly.  That voice… 

To his surprise, a large, grey hand rested his hand on the shoulder of the Keeper.

 _Bull_.

“Boss,” he repeated, letting go of the Keeper and stepping toward Lavellan slowly.  “Put down the barrier.  Stop with the magic shit.  You’re safe, I swear.”

Tears immediately falling from his eyes, he stopped the flow of magic to the barrier from his hand and ran toward Bull, hugging him as tightly as he could.  Bull looked confused as all hell, but he held him closely in his arms.

It felt like it’d been a million years since he’d felt those protective arms around him.  How long had it been?

“Hey, hey, it’s alright,” Bull sighed, giving a knowing look to the Keeper.  “Good thing you didn’t do anything too stupid.”

 “Why the hell am I here?” Atisha pulled away suddenly, looking around at the Dalish camp.  “Did you bring me here? When did we even get here?  How long have I been sleeping?”

 “I’ll explain,” Bull promised, lying both his hands on his shoulders.  “But first, you need to lie down, maybe eat something.  You’re weak, boss; you need some time to get your strength back.”

Finally giving in, Lavellan sat back down on the cot, and Bull brought him something to eat.  He was amazed at how absolutely famished he was; one moment, there was a small wolf leg on his lap, and the next, there was only bone left.  He wiped away the greasy residue from his lips in embarrassment.  He was taught to have more manners than that.

He glanced around at the Dalish camp.  The sun was just barely coming up.  There were a few hunters gathering their arrows for the day’s hunt; a very young mage, approximately eleven, practicing her spirit barriers; an elderly woman, tending to the injuries of a seemingly impulsive elven teen.

It was all very nostalgic, yes, but… why was he here?

“You feelin’ any better?”

He glanced back at Bull, who had stood to thank the Keeper quickly for the food.  “I’m… Yeah.  A little bit better.”

Bull smiled, walking over to him and sitting next to him on the log.  “I guess you’ve got some questions, huh?”

 _No shit_ , he thought to himself, but kept his mouth shut, simply nodding.

“Alright, kadan, ask away.”

Once he started, he felt like he was asking a million questions a minute.  What was he doing here in the first place?  Why in hell was _Bull_ here with him?  Why did he feel like he’d woken up from a coma?  Why wasn’t there anyone looking for him?

And what had happened to the Inquisition?

Bull seemed a bit depressed to answer all those questions.  Atisha had remembered less than he hoped for.  But he explained everything, in fine detail, from the last moment he remembered to the second they both ended up here, in Clan Lavellan.

The last moment he remembered… was getting his arm cut off.  Losing the mark, because it was trying to consume him.

According to Bull, Lavellan seemed to lose everything.  From his quirky smile to his creative uses of everyday magic, Atisha’s entire sense of self disappeared.  The traumatic experience of losing his arm managed to send him into one of the worst, longest dissociative states he’d ever seen, and Bull had seen everything in the heat of war.

They’d moved in together into Kirkwall after Varric’s offer to Lavellan, and the Bull’s Chargers became a mobile right hand of Kirkwall’s guard.  The mercenary company was reluctant to stay in one boring place for so long, but with Lavellan’s condition, Bull absolutely refused to leave his side until he improved.  “You sat in that little chair and looked out the top floor window for hours at a time,” Bull had said.  “It felt like you’d transform into stone the longer you sat there. I was afraid the next time I walked up the stairs, you’d be a statue.”

It had been months until Bull finally reached his last resort: contacting Lavellan’s clan for help in the matter.

“That’s why you’re here.  I know you’ve got bad blood with your clan, kadan, but I didn’t have any other options.  You had to get better somehow.  I was afraid I’d lost you to a demon or something.”  Bull looked down at him, wrapping an arm around his waist.  “I couldn’t lose you.  Not again.”

Atisha stared into the fire, trying his hardest to remember what he could, to no avail.  His memory was completely blank from the moment he lost his arm.  He felt like an entire chunk was missing from his life, like all that was left was a void and some empty memories.

“What about the Inquisition?”

“We disbanded.  A whole lot of the soldiers are working under Divine Victoria now, but…” Bull sighed, looking into the fire.  “Most of us went our separate ways.”

“What about Solas?”

“He disappeared after he fixed the mark on your hand to stop fucking you up for a little longer. We don’t know where he’s gone.”

“So everyone just… gave up? We just… disbanded?”

“We didn’t quit, if that’s what you’re getting at,” Bull sternly said.  “There’s not much we can do at this point, boss.  He vanished.  Cassandra—I mean, the Divine’s looking into the matters as well as she can.  We don’t have the jurisdiction to look into it anyway.”

“I…” Atisha looked down.  “Then what are we supposed to do?  He’s… He’s threatening the end of the world, Bull, we can’t just sit here and do nothing.”

“We’ll get contacted if we’re needed, Atisha.” Bull looked at him, resting a hand on his shoulder.  “You’ve got to trust me.  We’re as prepared as we’ll ever be.  Besides, we’ve got other responsibilities... with the estate and all.”

Atisha’s eyes widened.  “Wait, what?”


End file.
